Countdown
by VENIPHOENIX
Summary: Willow's journey might have come to an end, but she still has to make time for an old flame. Things are not always as they seem. Strictly non season based. It's the end.


Rating:T for teen and above.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant enemy publishers, Dark Horse Comics, and Fox Inc.. No monies have or are being made from this piece of fiction, I'm borrowing them for the purposes of this fictional free writing piece only. This story may not be reproduced or used for gain or profit in any way, Copies may be made, but may not be utilized for profit, and only for private use, all copies must include all disclaimer notices and, or copyright notices. Basically just borrowing for the fun of picking up the characters and making their lives even more interesting than they already are.

No distribution, except only to Fan .

Reviews: Love em. Just a few insults please I am very fragile.

Summary: Willow's journey may have come to an end, but she still has to make time for an old flame, Sparks? This is non season based, Who knows if season ten will either exist or include any of this. It draws upon events in season nine and eight. But strictly is in it's own universe.

* * *

Countdown.

The raven haired mad woman crumpled to the ground as if she were a rag doll. Blood pooled about her where she lay, it seemed to Erin's eyes, quite dead. Erin herself was dumbfounded by the strange scene being played out before her, she gunned her scout cycle down to prepare for a landing on the rooftop.

Buffy, as Erin witnessed however, neither moved nor turned towards the portal, she was transfixed to the spot it seemed, by the horror of her own last actions.

There was it appeared to Erin to be some sort of power reaching into the sky from where Buffy stood. Erin made to move toward Buffy, she felt an unfathomable urge to comfort this strange slayer from the past. Clearly to Erin, Buffy and the witch had once been very close, like sisters close, just as Melaka and Erin were now. Thusly within Erin something of a kinship had stirred for this slayer from the distant past. However Erin pulled out the hyper stunner she had retrieved and prepared to take aim, Jesu how she felt so uncertain, if Melaka was wrong; then Buffy was innocent of any crime or danger to Erin's world.

The portal behind the ancient slayer shimmered as if something disturbed the surface of the opening; the strange otherworldly light glittered and shone out to dominate the entire roof top area.

Buffy's face it seemed, had begun to register the enormity of her chosen actions, driven by her own act of murder, tears sprang into her eyes; she stood stock still as a Buffy shaped statue her wild eyes stared in brazen horror at the prone body. The slain corpse of her most beloved and closest friend, that friend slain by Buffy's own hand. She mouthed silently, over and over again to herself. "Willow, Willow." Buffy's legs shook and she seemed to be about to collapse to her knees beside the corpse.

The shoulders and the head of a woman appeared from within the portals glimmering interior, both were thrust through the spatial aperture along with her arms; a shock of red hair sat above her pale face. The newcomer's facial features were clearly identical to that of the fallen mad woman; she emerged no further than her upper torso and her eyes were enwrapped within a thick blindfold.

The red headed woman embraced Buffy from behind, she pulled the emotionally defeated slayer into her own arms; thence into the sanctuary of the portals brightly shining apeture. Buffy, whilst held in the newcomer's arms disappeared from Erin's world; the last Erin saw of Buffy was the mollifying state of shock still evident upon the ages bygone slayers face.

Fray dived forward in futile desperation toward the figure of Buffy as the two women receded into the blazing portal, Fray missed. The portal closed upon her, forever.

Erin braced herself for the end. "Goodbye sister." She whispered under her breath. "May Jesu keep your soul." When she opened her eyes a moment later, Fray and Erin were both still there, as was the rest of Hatten. 'We're alive, It didn't happen.' She thought. Erin clasped her head in joy, and jumped from her cycle to run whilst smiling to her sister's side, but Fray's head was hung low and she was almost in tears; Fray was kneeling beside the stricken body of the mad woman.

Erin quietly knelt beside her and placed her hand upon her sister's shoulder.

* * *

No one noticed the streak of lightning that connected the scythe to the sky above the roof. In the chaos of the fighting no one saw the almost imperceptible tiny ball of light, it paused a moment above the unfolding proceedings before it rose toward the clouds above Hatten. The little globule of light rose onward unnoticed, and upward toward the openSky.

Once it sat among the clouds a small opening occurred, exactly in the place among the clouds where small openings shouldn't occur; the little ball of light passed through.

The tiny aperture of pure sky silently closed behind it.

* * *

The barest bless of wind graced her cheek, little more than a caress in essence, the grass was feather soft beneath her back where she lay. Slowly, and cautiously, Willow opened her eyes, the light that leapt upon them was bearable and not in the least unpleasant or assailing upon the senses.

The soft trickle of a stream or a brook could be heard bubbling gently nearby, it could be heard, if not seen by Willow's eyes. She sat up carefully to rest upon her elbows. 'Odd, nothing hurts' Willow thought. She gazed down at herself, there was no wound. There was no gaping hole in her chest, no spurting streams of warm blood dripping down her flowing skirts, her entire chest area was intact and Willow breathed normally, no heaving, sucking, swollen lung wound accompanied her movements, she felt for her heart; it was in place beating with a steady thumping rhythm. She manoeuvred herself to sit cross legged in the grass, there was a feeling of warmth and pleasantness all around; the terrible traumatic agony of dying seemed to have become a faded if jaded memory.

The forest stretched off into thick intangible depths. The foliage was strikingly verdant green in tone, and fae lights flittered to and froe within the further confines of the trees, plants of every hue adorned the edges of the glade in which she found herself, they budded in shades and colours that Willow found impossible to name or describe, and miniscule tinkerbell's, at least they seemed so to Willow's mind, skittered among them; zipping from plant stem to stem.

Willow was just able to spy a reflective and shimmering surface through the first few trees, it belonged to a small lake whereupon she could see tiny ripples lapping at the water's grassy edge; set within an open glade entirely covered beneath the forest canopy. Willow stood up slowly, still she felt no signs of pain or injury, she stood easily and comfortably. With her hands she brushed her dress down, and noticed that It was coloured a dark deep red colour, yet in Hatten it had been a dark night blue; but she hadn't really been herself then.

Willow removed her shoes with a deep wistful sigh, then upon standing she found the soil yielded easily beneath her nude toes, a welcoming feeling overall. It had been an age since Willow had felt the energy flowing into her feet from beneath her, from the warm mother earth under her tread. One step at a time, she tested the ground , no hole opened up to swallow her; no sharp pins thrust themselves into the soles of her feet.

"I'm not in hell then." She remarked openly to herself, but then nothing seemed to tell her that this place was exactly heaven either. Where were her friends and family rushing forward to greet her? She could recall having seen no tunnel of soft golden light, no booming voice of the Jehovah welcoming her into his Angelic legions, no proclamations of eternal love sounding sweetly all about her; there was just silence. Willow was certain there were supposed to be people she loved in her life waiting to greet her, but there was just the sounds of warmth and the comfort of the pleasing lake waters running; and gently bubbling through the rocks a short distance away. 'Maybe this is Gehhenna, or Hades, or Valhalla.' She wondered to herself. 'No, silly, they're all foreign cultures to me; why would I go to those places?' "I think I recognize this place though." Willow said aloud and mainly to herself, as Willow herself was the only one available that she was aware of to hear.

She made her way slowly to the lakes water's edge, there she stood alone within the glades encompassing quiet; and gazed down into lake water's barely disturbed surface.

However the woman who was gazing back up at her had no answers to give, it took Willow some time to recognize that other lost and sad face. It was her own face with her own large and prominent eyes, a face pale to the point of unhealthily wan though it accentuated her lips. Willow recalled a distant memory of a doctor telling her that her eyes structure were cognizant with future thyroid difficulties. Well, Willow had walked the earth for decades, many, but she had never had thyroid troubles. 'Maybe because I never aged?' She wondered to herself.

The woman gazing back up to her from the lakes waters was herself, Willow Rosenburg,oh! How she had forgotten that woman, her long straight red hair, almost emerald eye colour, and a small and rounded but not overtly notable nose pleasantly placed in a set of symmetrical features, her jowls set slightly too low, a feature she always disliked about herself, Willow had always felt that they made her look permanently depressed; mainly by dragging the corners of her mouth downwards.

"There you are again. Where did you go?" She verbally asked of herself, not really expecting any answer, reflections don't talk back; as a rule. "I think I know where I am now." Willow said aloud."I've been here once before, a long, long time ago, an age ago; and It looks like I've come home."

"Indeed you have my little Willow tree." A faceless voice, sultry, deep and yet still definitively feminine wafted forth from the forest depths behind where Willow stood.

Willow froze. "Whose there?" She asked aloud, but without turning her head away from the water's surface. Though, in truth she thought recognized the faceless voice. 'Can it be?' She thought.

The sultry voice replied. "One who loves you dearest Willow, always loved you, a trickster, A liar, Forger of riddled schemes."

"Willow did not turn to meet the speaker, she continued to gaze at her own reflection, slowly, a face appeared over her reflections shoulder, the head adorned with white, straight hair that stretched all the way down her back; sharply angular and seductively alluring features smiled with great affection upon the lakes reflection of Willow herself.

Willow being almost unable to breath turned slowly to meet the intruder. She stared into the face of the serpentine woman. "Saga…? Alluwyn…? Saga. Is it really you? Or is this just... all some illusion?"

Two pairs of Cyprus pearl green skinned hands reached out to cup Willows face within them gently and affectionately. "It is I my Willow, you know within yourself that it is I."

"My Goddess, Saga!" Tears flowed freely from Willow's eyes. "I didn't want to believe it could be you… and it is you, I-I tried to find you, each and every place I went, I tried to call out for you, by day and night, but I couldn't sense you, or feel you anywhere, I searched the face of the earth, every remote corner I could reach for all the centuries… Every trail and lead…" She choked off her last words; and fell forward into the open arms of her demon beloved.

The soft, seductive voice of Saga Vasuki reached out to sooth and caress Willow with words of silk."Oh! My poor, poor sweet Willow, you've walked such a long way." The snake woman held the red head firmly in her arms, Willow wept heavily onto Saga's shoulder. "Poor dear, poor, poor dear, you're home now, but Willow, my darling Willow you sought me ever in all the wrong places, I was for a time closer than you know." Willow's face was buried into the demoness's shoulder, where she heaved and wept; so Saga Vasuki contented to comfort the weeping witch for now.

Willow cried out her centuries of pain for some time, until all of the endless wandering, scheming, searching, and dying were wept from within herself; Saga held on to the weeping witch until she began to calm.

Eventually Willow stood back and sniffled softly, whilst her tears rolled across her cheeks. Saga lifted Willow's chin to look directly into her red swollen eyes, she cupped her palms either side of the red head witches tear wracked features. "Welcome home little Willow, did I not say that you should come back soon?"

Willow sniffed then smiled up into the face of her ancient lover. "Was two hundred years soon enough?" She made a sobbing and laughing sound together, but it was more like a small whimper.

"Time has no meaning here Willow, I recall you as if it were yesterday. I have watched your lonely journey, but I could not reach you or touch you; I could only watch you."

"Magic was gone from my world Saga, I had to find the way to turn around Buffy's mistake, to give magic back to the Earth, the world had to have magic, had to have it's spark."

"You and Buffy shared a bond beyond time and space Willow, and even magic, nothing is done by one, that cannot be undone again, all that you and she have wrought was destined to be; there were no mistakes. My own hands in this all are hardly innocent either."

"More riddles Saga? My poor noggin's still kinda reelin from having been brutally impaled on a slayers doom weapon, I haven't even had time for breakfast yet."

"No! no more riddles my little Willow, the time of riddles is done. You've come a long way Thursday's child, and now it's time for you to rest."

Willow paused and looked directly at the serpent woman. "Tell me, Is she happy again?"

"You mean Buffy?"

"Yeah! Is she happy now, back with her mom?"

"She's very happy Willow, but she's not with her Mother."

"Then… Where?"

"Not far, you'll see her again I promise."

"Am I dead Saga?"

Saga Vasuki paused and regarded Willow with a considering expression. "Yes… And… No my dearest."

Willow's brow furrowed in deep confusion. "You said there were no more riddles Saga, but all that you've said since I was tinkerbelled over here has had definitive riddle qualities. You're a riddle merchant in fact."

"You actually recall coming here?"

"Well, It's kinda like a fuzzy dream, like when you remember the facets of bits of one, but then you just can't make out the details; but I think I saw Buffy disappearing into a bright portal on the roof."

"It's the depth of your talent my Willow."

"So, how about easing up on the confusing a little?"

"Sweet Willow, I will reveal all that you wish to know, but I don't wish to overwhelm you, you need time to recover from the shock of dying and passing into my realm."

"How...? How did I come to be here Saga?"

The demon woman passed her fingers through Willow's red hair. "You have always been here Willow, do you not see that?"

"I had to die to come here this time Saga, last time it was just the orgasmic jollies! This time I was stabbed to death by my best friend, what kind of game is that? Cos I gotta give you a newsflash it ain't a fun one"

"It was all a circle little Willow, a wound opened to seal a wound closed; the wound thence closed, reopened."

Willow just took hold of Saga's hands. "My love, you promised me no more riddles, but now all that you give me is total gobbledy gook, I'm all awash with the total inability to follow anything you're saying, and I now realize that I've got no idea what gobbledy gook is, but; you're fluent in it."

Saga rested back upon her snake body coiled underneath her human frame. She bought Willow down until she sat upon Saga's serpentine coiled form, once Willow was comfortable Saga looked pointedly into the red heads eyes. "You are not dead here Willow, you have died, where you came from that is unchangeable; but here you are alive in this realm."

"This isn't the afterlife though? Is it? This is the astral plane isn't it? Where I came to see you before? That first time."

"This is not strictly the astral plane, although it is attached to that realm, but it has it's… own laws, as I pertain them to be."

"This is your realm? Then... you know? Where are we?"

"I have some deep confessions to make to you my dearest Willow, first I need to explain… You see when you came to me that first visit, it was to a time in a place without time. As there was no time, there was no actual before or after to your visit. So in essence you have always been here, and you always will be, you are essentially still here with your spirit from that visit, when you came here, you melded with your past self instantly, the part of you that will be here forever and undying. Presto! Back to life in a can, just add water and stir, you know how I like to stir Willow?" The demon woman paused to let that settle into Willow's ears. "I can't explain it any better than that, I was never one for math, that's your area smarty pants. However a similar thing happened for me, and for my other eternal guests."

"You mean that girl in the wheelie chair, and the big bad knight?"

"Yes, they are… special to me."

"So why am I here Saga?"

Saga helped Willow to her feet, and then uncoiled herself to her fullest height before the red witch."

"I am a spinner of cycles, and a weaver of circles Willow, I watched your cycle and could see it's end in endlessness, I couldn't leave you like that dearest Willow, I had to help you finish well, and I had to help you leave well, as well."

"Are you telling me, you somehow arranged for me to be on that roof in Hatten?"

"No! No more than you shifted the chess board to bring the others there. I couldn't interfere any time after the loss of magic from your world Willow, but I could foresee ahead to that time, the rest was just best aim, and best guess; seems that I'm a pretty good shot."

"I never wanted to have to put Buffy through that, seeing such a dark future, knowing allthose terrible truths, killing me…" Willow turned her back on the snake woman, she felt shehad been seen doing enough crying.

Saga Vasuki placed both comforting hands upon Willow's shoulders. "She understood in the end Willow, Buffy understood. Now, I have another confession to make to you."

"It's a big day for revelations, maybe I shoulda stayed in bed today?"

"It's about why you're here Willow, and why I wanted you here."

Willow shrugged her shoulders. "Because you love me, I hope?"

"Of course, it was also because I love you deeply. There were and are also other mitigating reasons."

"What are you telling me now? Or will you be lying again? I'm Sorry, but it is kinda you're raison d'etre by your own words."

"The time of lies is all over as well Willow, you've done your fair share and so have I, let the game be ended, only truth now be told agreed?"

"Agreed, of course, but do I have to ask directly?"

"Please do."

"Why am I here? Why did I let myself be stabbed to death by my best friend? Basically just a big why, really."

Saga sank back down into her coiled form, she held her silence a moment, as if contemplating weighty matters. After a few moments she sighed audibly and spoke. "As I said Willow I couldn't leave you like that, wandering and lost eternally in the darkness. Because once long ago you believed that you couldn't leave me like that, and you didn't. I resented you for that, until the day I came to love you for it."

Saga Vasuki raised herself until she stretched as high as she was able. "Because, my sweet Will, death… is my gift."

Willow stood lost in confusion for a few moments. "Death,.. is your… No!… No way, it can't be."

Saga Vasuki's form seemed to shimmer in the sunlight."

"Buffy… Goddess are you Buffy? Saga have you been Buffy… all along?"

The form of Saga Vasuki, Goddess of serpents, the demon naga was replaced in the blink of an eye by that of a smaller thinly framed blond woman, having angular features, with a small pointed and slightly upturned nose, long sandy blond to auburn hair draped in straight lengths to her shoulder's. Before Willow's eyes stood the unmistakable physical form of Buffy Summers, the vampire slayer. She stood before Willow clothed in her favourite old leather jacket, black jeans and having her hair tied back in a bun.

Willow simply stared for a long time at her best friend, a gamut of emotions played over her features, she seemed ready to either weep or turn and run. An unmeasurable time seemed to pass, finally Willow blurted out. "How could you Buffy? How could you do this to me? I loved Saga Vasuki, after everything I've lost to find something I truly can love for all time, and you've taken that away."

"Please Will, don't be upset." Buffy said in fairy soft tones.

"But I loved her Buffy… you lied to me, you with played me." Willow stepped back from Buffy with the tears running along her cheeks. "You were my best friend, I loved you like a sister, how could you? You manipulated my emotions, you stabbed me through the bleeding heart you played with."

"Will please, listen to me."

"What can you possibly say to make it okay Buffy?" Willow actually stamped her foot upon the ground below.

"I wasn't lying to you Will, I love you."

"You… you love me?"

"As Saga Will, as Saga I love you. I never made any of that up, as Saga I came to fall in love, It wasn't what I was planning, It just sort of… happened. Everything had to play out exactly, otherwise I would have lost you Will; I could never have bought you over to me here otherwise."

"When did you come to the astral plain Buffy?"

"It isn't the astral here Will, this is somewhere different. I've been here before, when I sort of prepared it for everyone."

Willow nodded in understanding. "Of course… Twilight, It's Twilight isn't it, that's where we are."

"It's a long story Will, I want to tell you everything, but please, please don't hate me, if I hadn't interfered, you would still have died, but it would have been the end of you, a meaningless death. A hell bound death."

Willow folded her arms, she wiped a tear from her eye. She stood staring at her old friend with an accusing expression. "Why the guise of Saga, why did you seduce me; I was always loyal to you Buffy?"

"It's no guise Will, I am Saga Vasuki. Remember time has no meaning in Twilight, I've tried to change things where possible for the better, in my head I'm still trying to make the world better, that's what everyone means by me being an interferer; a bringer of chaos."

"How…?"

"Remember the extra power the three shamans offered to me, that would make me less human? Well, I sort of ended up getting an overdose. This is what a pure slayer is Will, this is the monster that imbibes us, creatures like me have existed in history before; I'm not the first to have been given this power."

"My Goddess, Buffy, where is the real you in this?"

"Just a memory now, written within myself, but I'm still Buffy as much as I am Saga or…Alluwyn, it's all about shifting the fabrics of single moments here, one moment I'm Buffy, the next Saga, it's all relative Will. Saga loves you, and Buffy is still your best friend; I love you also."

"How… When did you come to Twilight?"

"Not too long after things changed, I found the way back here; Dawn turned out to be very powerful with her ability to open dimensional gates."

"Dawn… Dawn is here?"

"She is, you actually met her once, probably just didn't realize it, she and I however…"

"What Buffy?"

"We had a kind of final falling out, It's not something I want to talk about."

"You and she aren't close any more?"

"We fell out over something else, we're still sisters of course, that's something that can't change; just that we have different perspectives of how to make things better."

"Who else is here Buffy?"

"To come here requires some natural magical inheritances, so I had to chose out of vampires, witches, and slayers, oh yeah, and keys I guess."

"Xander then, not too magically inherent I take it?" Willow said sadly.

"Sorry Will, things didn't end too well there, but his soul is somewhere good now, I promise, he's at peace."

"No it's okay Buffy, I knew what I was doing when I started on this path, I knew what I would have to give up."

"I'm sorry things had to be this way Will, but believe me the alternative possibility was much worse."

"I wish I had, had more time to say goodbye to people I care about, to be honest I hadn't expected to ever see you again really."

"It's good to see you though Will."

Willow smiled whilst unfolding her arms, she came to stand beside her old friend. "I just felt kinda dead inside already Buffy, I mean when the magic was gone. I really understand now how you felt when I bought you back to life. Things have been so empty for me for so long."

"It's all over now Will. I've never stopped caring about you, when you came the first time, I was just going to set you up for the future with a bit of theatrics, then however things just became more complicated."

"Complicated, Buffy?"

"You and Saga, my other half, my dark half if you will, you fell in love with each other. It was more than just about sparing my best friend from a fate worse than death. It was about having a life. However the others, Dawn, Faith and the ladies, they didn't feel that I should nudge you, or make it easy for you. They're still holding onto the philosophy that you have to be fully purged of all your old sins; emptied of the darkness that entered your being"

"My old mistakes?" Willow's face showed her resentment at other peoples judgements.

"They don't know you like I do Will, I trust the Willow I know, once I understood the link between us, I've been listening to your dreams; understanding what makes Will tick."

"We're close friends that's a link."

"It's deeper than that Will, it's because of Twilight, we're always here in a place without time together, that link bonded us on Earth as well."

Willow nodded. "I Understand we've been living in two cycles since the day we met."

"It's why there was such a strong bond between us; Spike and Angel also."

"Because they're here?" Buffy nodded.

"Even Dawn and others I guess?"

"Yeah! It has been kinda like there was a sorta karma between all of us."

"Some people just got caught up in the orbit of it all, like Xander."

"So why the break now?"

"When I became… well… what I've become, they all stopped listening to me. They wouldn't trust my judgement about you any longer."

"They stopped seeing you as the Buffy they always knew?"

"Yeah! I guess it's like when a vampire gets a soul back, you're just never quite sure when the demons in charge or the human; suddenly the darkness was in me also."

"Even Dawn?"

"Dawn's had a difficult existence, she still doesn't really know what she is, I was her rock that she held onto. I guess once she lost faith in that..? Well… She found Faith elsewhere. She has yet to understand that she and twilight itself have a lot in common."

"I take it you started that new gang, just you and the three stooges?"

"They all say I am chaos unbridled, a liar, an interferer, that I put my own personal agendas first."

"You just wanted to rescue the ones you cared about, they didn't think I should've walked that path at all did they?"

"Each of them has touched darkness in their own way, from their view it gives them the right to think that they know what's best for you Will, but they don't. They don't know you, to know what's best. You knew me well enough to trust me to be your guide, even when you had no reason at all to trust me, every reason to doubt me, but you didn't…"

"They thought they were losing us to darkness."

"They remembered Angel, how he became possessed by twilight, it gave them all the heebie jeebie's."

"They should have trusted in you Buffy, you've led them through thick and thin."

"I've led them to their horrible deaths as well, they haven't forgotten that."

"Is that the only evidence they're using?"

"That and the wound."

"What is that?"

"It's what we did Willow. To change the world in our blind efforts to heal it, it took part of both of us in our collective union, you nearly destroying the world, me boinking twighlight."

Willow scrunched her lips. "That was mostly you."

"Well, I mean I sorta do take a lot of the responsibility… but anyway you helped."

"I just wanted to make all the pain go away."

"So did I… In the end it's what has kept us apart."

"What do you mean kept us apart?"

"I think I was meant to be where Tara was Will, but Buffy being… Well… Me, Buffy, she just couldn't get over herself, or her life, that's what made you choose Saga Vasuki I think."

"There was something I felt about you from the day we met, I just felt like we were born to be sisters or something. could that be what made me want to stay with you no matter what.

"I'm glad you did."

"The other's will never trust me now will they?"

"They never understood the you Will, even I didn't the first time back in Hatten, I just struck out blindly in pain, you tried to tell me didn't you, but I was too self righteous still stuck upon myself to listen. 'Buffy is always right' That's where my head was at."

"It could only have ended one way Buffy, Saga knows I had to die by Buffy, it's the only way. Only you could've bought me over.

"The others want to see you bridled, and placed under strict watch."

"They aren't Gods here Buffy this is a place of ultimate freedom."

"So lets use some of that God power and deal with that nasty old wound."

"Without riddling up the castle Aaaaagh, or man killing rabbits."

Buffy chuckled. "Agreed!"

"What now Buffy, what happens now?"

"First, Will I really, really want to hug you."

Willow sniffed, then laughed, she unfolded her arms and held them out to her best friend. Buffy walked forward into Willow's embrace, which she reciprocated with a warmth neither had felt in hundreds of years. To Willow it seemed that time passed, she knew the sun overhead was an illusion, a mental creation of Buffy's, or someone here, 'maybe Muffit's, she seemed to fancy herself as an Alice in wonderland'. Willow already guessed that the black knight could only be Angel, she wondered how many other old friends she might be able to find. "You know Buffy, I've wandered in a daze for some hundreds of years, and today is the first time I've thought even remotely outside the darkness that I thought my future had become." Willow spoke but kept her arms around Buffy as if she might vanish.

"You missed a lot, but in a way I supposed you saved the world."

"I've released the vampires again, is that really saving the Earth?"

"The strength was dying in the world, inside without the Earth's magic, this way the people will have the strength to fight back, and to stand up for themselves; the higher powers are sending heroes back into the world."

"Whose gonna show them the way Buffy?"

"Give them a chance Will, they're stronger than they seem, besides I think that final slayer was doing pretty well, the history books won't forget her; like they forgot much of me."

"What'll become of the world without us?"

"Oh! That'll go on, and on. That new slayer has arisen, she'll re forge the scythe and fight on, descendants of watchers will come out of the cold, old books bought out and dusted off, the battle will go on Will, but not for you? You look so very tired?"

Willow nodded. "I've walked a long way Buffy, most of it at night."

"Come and sit with me under the pear tree Will." Buffy took Willow's arm and led her to a single pear tree that sat alone by the lake side waters. She sat down and indicated that Willow should do the same beside her. As Buffy leant back into the tree, Willow installed her self next to her also leaning back against the tree trunk. Buffy gently pulled Willow's weary head onto her own shoulder; together they sat awhile in quiet reflection upon all that had bought them to this new world.

"You wanna sleep for a while Will? Go ahead."

"It's nice just to take a rest, I might just drop off while you're talking okay?"

Buffy was silent for a while. "You know that your parents passed away of course?"

Willow nodded silently "Yeah I sorta guessed that they weren't immortal Buff, I wonder if they ever thought about what happened to me?"

"Your Mom didn't even recognize my name when I telephoned, she just said that she hadn't seen you for years."

"We kind of stopped talking to each other after some bad words were passed in Brazil, she was still trying to run my life, even though she didn't care too much about it."

"They're all gone now Will."

"I know, but you know, I always loved your Mom Buffy, very much, I felt like the first day I came to your house, that Joyce had become my real Sunnydale Mom."

"She thought very highly of you, you were always the first one she'd ask after."

"I hope she's happy wherever she is."

"I know that she is, remember? I also know that Tara is happy and that they both know that you and I are okay."

"I guess you would kinda know wouldn't you?"

"That place…it think it existed in a place that's above Earth or Twilight Will, Tara knows I promise you."

Willow returned a sad smile and tucked her head into Buffy's shoulder." So slayer, what do we do now?"

"Relax, that's what you do now Will, I'm going to take care of my very best friend and alternate personality's lover, just lay back and enjoy the show."

"Odd! I'm feeling really hungry."

"Want a pear? They're fresh?"

"Tempting, slayer?"

"I'm a temptress."

"Is that a love gift from your Saga side?"

"Saga would just make it into a necklace of pearls for you."

"Right now I prefer my Buffy time."

"Just let me know."

"The strange thing is Buffy, ever since I arrived here; I've had Strawberry fields forever playing over and over in my head."

"Oh! God I hate that song."

"I won't be attempting to hum it."

"So Willow Rosenburg, do you want to spend an eternity in a garden of eden paradise with your best friend and demon lover?"

"I think I'll be five by five with that Miss Summers."

The two old friends looked with a smile into each others eyes for a moment, and then together they burst out laughing. They hugged each other and lay back to look into the open sky, their soft chuckles caught upon the passing wind and floated up into the tree's branches that lay above them.

Eternity moved on.

* * *

"Who was she Mel?" Erin knelt over the lifeless body of the night black haired woman. "Buffy called her Willow." A dark pool of expanding blood was gathered about her form.

Erin had checked for a pulse, but the mysterious mad woman was beyond help now.

"I haven't got a clue, she was playing us all, looks like her real argument was with Buffy anyway."

"She looked as though she wanted Buffy to kill her."

"I guess it's something between them from long, long ago, it's all over now though." Fray collected the broken pieces of her scythe weapon, she sighed whilst looking over the ancient artifact. "What shall we do with the body?"

"I'll call it in to law head quarters, found deceased white female no suspects available for probable, believed murder, victim of unknown identity."

"Try to arrange some sort of funeral for her."

"All we know is her name, Willow."

"I guess she'll be interred as just Willow then."

"It's unfortunate that people had to die."

"I'm sorry for putting you through all this Erin."

"You had to Mel, just in case you were right, there was too much at stake, I'm just glad that we were wrong."

"Me too, I'm not about to lose you now sister; not when I've fought so hard to find you."

"I'm glad Buffy made it back home, I kind of liked her."

Fray shrugged. "I couldn't take to her, but I'm glad I didn't have to kill her." She smiled. "Those books say that Buffy was buried quietly in a lost town called Sundial or something, it's somewhere out in the western desert. See if you can inter Willow out there, it's just a pit in the landscape these days and it seems fitting they should be buried near each other; near to their old homes."

"Garth, I wish there had been some way to save him."

"Lurks can't be re turned Erin, we both know that, bury his ashes, in the ground and in our memories; I don't have time for nostalgia when I'm killing nightshade."

"Agreed." Erin said a silent prayer for her brother. "Is it all over Mel?"

"I don't know Erin." Fray paused as she studied the broken scythe in her hands. She then glanced over once at the corpse of the mad woman Willow. "I hope she was happy when she went."

* * *

In the twilight hours a small skimmer lands inside the crater pit that once was a bustling town called Sunnydale. The conspiring law from the city unload the single casket, with some respectful intent they carry it into a small pre dug pit, on completion a large rock is placed across the top, and a couple of words have been laser carved thoughtfully upon it; the sum of all that was ever known about the enigmatic woman contained therein.

"Willow, Unknown."

* * *

As the skimmer crew departs from the crater, they do not see the single pair of eyes that observe them depart from within the darkening shadows.

The witness waits until the craft has passed over the horizon, then she emerges, the fair haired, and thinly framed girl approaches the fresh tomb; she smiles to herself at the name emblazoned upon the rock.

"Your release of magic bought me back Willow, back from the place of dreams. I know you can't hear me old friend, old adversary. Still... rest peacefully now you've earned it, such a long, long time to stay awake. I can sense the magic's building, our world will return; then I have a lot of work to do myself."

Amy Madieson ran her hand tenderly across the name indented upon the rock marker. "Farewell now sweet little Willow." The fair woman turned to face out into the deserts gathering darkness. It spread across the plains and dunes as if it were something tangible. Etheral eyes of fire manifested upon the horizon, deep within the nights shadowed depths. Fae cries... shrilled out upon gossamer currents were sounded within the dust ridden winds.

Amy's hair stood up on ends over her goosebumps, but she liked it. "Yes, I've got a lot of work to do."


End file.
